I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 86: Chapter 84: Revisiting the Scene

”What did you find?”

Zhuang Yanzheng and Su Miaoyi came to the conference room to see Yan Cheng right after meeting with Wei Lan’s parents.

Yan Cheng said, ”I just went back and did the autopsy again. Wei Lan has an old injury.”

A tremor shot through Su Miaoyi.

”There’s a very faint, hard-to-spot bite mark on the back of her neck. It’s at least three weeks old,” Yan Cheng said.

”Also, based on the examination and lab results, last night probably wasn’t the first time Wei Lan was assaulted.”

Su Miaoyi closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Zhuang Yanzheng was silent for a moment as well. ”Wei Lan’s parents also said she seemed a bit off this past month.”

Yan Cheng didn’t say anything.

Wei Lan was non-verbal and had intellectual disabilities, and the old man was hard of hearing.

It wouldn’t be impossible for someone to sneak in at night and coax Wei Lan.

Even if they made some noise, the old man wouldn’t have heard it.

”Let’s go back to the scene,” Zhuang Yanzheng said, looking at Su Miaoyi. ”Let’s go.”

Su Miaoyi immediately followed him.

The two of them returned to the crime scene once more.

Just as they reached the sixth floor, they saw two people coming down from the seventh.

Zhuang Yanzheng had seen them at the municipal bureau.

It was the son and daughter of the elderly couple from the seventh floor.

After leaving the bureau, they had gone to the hospital to see the old woman.

”Captain Zhuang,” one of them greeted him.

Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”How is the old lady?”

”She’s gone,” the man said with a sigh. ”They couldn’t save her.”

The woman turned her head away and wiped a tear.

Su Miaoyi’s lips trembled, and she unconsciously clenched her fists.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”My condolences.”

The man nodded. ”My father doted on my mother his entire life. I guess she didn’t want to be left behind.”

Despite the sudden, immense tragedy, the man appeared calm, but Su Miaoyi felt he was about to fall apart.

After speaking, the man added, ”We’ll be going now.”

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded and stepped aside to let them pass.

He watched them go downstairs before entering apartment 601.

Su Miaoyi followed him into the apartment, her heart heavy and her thoughts a mess.

She looked at the cluttered room and took a deep breath to calm herself.

Zhuang Yanzheng went to the kitchen to check the knives hidden in the cabinet.

He turned his head and saw Su Miaoyi standing motionless in the living room.

He called out to her.

Su Miaoyi snapped back to reality and walked into the kitchen.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her again, then hooked a small stool over with his foot and had her look at the cabinet above. ”Look at these marks.”

The cabinet was high up and looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time. It was covered in a layer of dust.

Yan Cheng had mentioned during the autopsy that Wei Hong had some shoulder and neck problems. They didn’t affect his daily life, but it was difficult for him to raise his arms.

The cabinet was a little taller than Su Miaoyi; she would have to reach up to get anything out of it.

It was inconvenient for the old man to use, so it was probably left unused.

Su Miaoyi stood on the small stool and examined the marks in the dust inside the cabinet.

The knives were still there; they hadn’t been moved.

Zhuang Yanzheng moved the knives aside.

The imprints underneath the knives were similar to the other marks around them.

Su Miaoyi realized what it meant. ”The killer has been here more than once. Every time he came, he put the knives in this cabinet, which is what created these marks.”

”What about these longer marks?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Su Miaoyi thought for a moment.

She stepped down from the stool.

Zhuang Yanzheng placed the knives back in their original position in the cabinet.

Su Miaoyi reached up for them. Because she wasn’t quite tall enough, her hand touched the handle and then dragged it downward as she took it, leaving a long mark in the dust.

When Wei Hong was younger, he wasn’t short and would have had no problem reaching the cabinet. But now that he was old, his back was stooped, making him shorter, and with his arm problems, taking the knives down would have been difficult.

”During one of his break-ins, the killer forgot to put the knives back where they belonged before leaving,” Su Miaoyi said. ”The old man must have noticed.”

He cooked every day; he would definitely notice if his knives were missing.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

Su Miaoyi looked toward the door.

Next, the two of them stood outside the apartment, and Su Miaoyi shut the door.

Once this type of door was shut, it would lock automatically and could only be opened from the inside.

From the outside, it could only be opened with a key.

But there was another way.

Zhuang Yanzheng took a bank card out of his wallet and handed it to Su Miaoyi.

Su Miaoyi looked at the black card. ”Don’t you have a different one?”

”This one works well,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi said no more. She slid the bank card into the door jamb, gripped it tightly, and swiped outward, opening the door.

Zhuang Yanzheng raised an eyebrow.

Su Miaoyi looked at Zhuang Yanzheng.

If the door wasn’t deadbolted from the inside, or double-locked with a key from the outside, this type of lock could be opened with a simple swipe.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”These days, they have special cards for opening these locks, even more effective than bank cards.”

Su Miaoyi handed the card back to him.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”The lock was never changed.”

That was why he hadn’t been able to figure it out or connect the dots when he saw the marks on the lock earlier that morning.

This lock had clearly been picked with a wire.

It had been broken in the process; it could no longer be deadbolted from the inside.

Under these circumstances, if he discovered a stranger had been there, why didn’t he change the lock?

Isn’t that just like leaving the door wide open for a thief?

He had only considered one method of entry: picking the lock.

But if the killer had simply swiped the door open with a card on previous occasions, then everything made sense.

After the old man discovered someone had been inside, he started deadbolting the door from the inside.

Once it was deadbolted, it couldn’t be swiped open with a card.

The only option was to pick the lock.

Su Miaoyi was silent for a moment. ”If he knew a stranger had been in the apartment, why didn’t he call the police?”

”Probably because he noticed nothing was stolen. He might have thought it was just a burglar who wouldn’t come back after failing to take anything,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”Also, he probably felt safe once he started deadbolting the door.”

Su Miaoyi opened her mouth, but no words came out. She didn’t know what to say.

After a moment, she said, ”With weather like this, there probably won’t be anyone near the overpass today.”

With such heavy snow, no one would be out setting up stalls.

”Let’s head back to the bureau first,” Zhuang Yanzheng said. ”The New Year is coming up, and thieves need to celebrate too.”

That’s why theft cases always increase around the New Year.

Su Miaoyi listened to him.

These kinds of cases were numerous and difficult to solve.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”Some of the sub-bureaus and local stations have caught a few thieves recently. Qi Feng has already taken some men to question them.”

Su Miaoyi nodded.

The killer was a habitual thief.

Thieves often work in gangs.

It’s very likely they know each other.

Besides, with the tattoo on the killer’s face, anyone who had seen him would likely have a strong impression.

Su Miaoyi looked at the snow outside the window.

It was still falling.

The snowflakes were large but fell slowly—it wasn’t a blizzard. But at that moment, Su Miaoyi was in no mood to appreciate their beauty.

”Feeling down?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked, glancing at her.

”A little,” Su Miaoyi said, her gaze fixed on the window. ”Four lives, all in a single day and night. Maybe it’s because the New Year is almost here, and I’m thinking about going home for reunion dinners... that feeling is suddenly amplified.”

”What we can do is get justice for the dead, rid society of this cancerous evil, and prevent, stop, and reduce criminal activity,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

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